Chocolate Chip cookies were ‘invented’ by Ruth Wakefield invented in 1930 when she and her husband managed the Toll House inn near Whitman, Massachusetts. It was made with butter cookie dough and a broken up bar of chocolate she had received as a gift. After some time the recipes were published and have grown in popularity to become the most popular cookie in America –  7 billion are consumed annually and half of all cookies baked at home in America are chocolate chip cookies. In the past decade the cookies have become quite popular in other parts of the world but not nearly as much as in the United States.

Ingredients

• 100 g  good quality dark chocolate (75% cocoa solids  - or less, depending on your taste)
• 125 g butter
• 100 g demerara sugar
• 75 g  soft brown sugar
• 1 large organic egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 150 g plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt

Method

• Heat the oven to 190C.
• Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
• Dice the chocolate into smallish chunks and set aside.
• Heat the butter in a small saucepan, very gently, until it has just melted.
• Put all the sugar into a mixing bowl.
• Pour the melted butter on top of the sugars and beat well with a wooden spoon.
• Add the egg and the vanilla and beat until well blended.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the mixing bowl and stir them in, then add the chopped chocolate.
• Dot heaped pudding spoonfuls of the mixture over the lined baking sheets, leaving plenty of space in between them–they really spread out while baking.
• Put the baking sheets in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies are just turning golden brown.
• Leave the cookies on the baking sheets to harden for a couple of minutes, then carefully lift up the baking parchment and transfer them to a wire cooling rack.
• You can eat these cookies warm, but they are also good cold, and they store